Ford has confirmed it’s working on a replacement for the Transit Courier small van, and it looks like we’ve just spotted an early development version out in the wild. The Transit Courier, or Tourneo Courier as it’s known in people-carrying guise, was launched in 2013, and though this mule does its best to hide behind that vehicle’s bodywork and a ton of brain-scrambling disguise, there are a few clues that hint this is in fact an all-new van. The most obvious change is to the headlights, which appear to have been lifted from the Puma crossover. New lights alone don’t signify a new chassis of course, they could be part of a comprehensive facelift, and the rear lights are carried over.
But this particular van has a much taller
nose than the current van, is running on five-lug, rather than four-lug hubs,
and it also has a subtly different rear door. The lower section of the rear
door is noticeably longer, suggesting the next Courier is getting a wheelbase
stretch, and the rear wheel appears to intrude less into the door space, which
ought to make it easier for rear seat passengers to climb in and out of
versions configured as minivans like this one.
MPV-spec Tourneo Couriers will go to
battle with other four-door minivans like the Mercedes T-Class, Renault Kangoo
and Volkswagen Caddy. But most will be ordered as panel vans without this car’s
rear door-glass and quarter windows, and the choice of two or four doors,
though both passenger and commercial versions will be built at the same Ford
plant in Craiova, Romania.
EcoBoost 1.0-liter petrol and 1.5- and
1.6-liter Duratorq diesel engines are still likely to account for the bulk of
sales, at least initially, and those are the powertrains we’ll see when Ford
pulls back the covers on the final production van in 2023. But both Mercedes
and Renault are offering electric versions of their vans,
and we’re expecting Ford to follow suit in 2024.
